1. Field
Example embodiments of the following disclosure relate to a dust collecting apparatus, which is mounted to a vacuum cleaner to collect dust, and more particularly to, a dust collecting apparatus having a dust-removing unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, the dust collecting apparatus is installed to a main body of a vacuum cleaner to separate dust by introducing outside air. Such a dust collecting apparatus includes a centrifugal separator (cyclone) for centrifugally separating introduced dust, a dust case for collecting the separated dust, and a filter member for secondarily filtering fine dust included in the dust-separated air so as to reduce inconvenience of exchanging a dust bag and cost burden.
According to such a dust collecting apparatus, when the fine dust is accumulated in the filter member, due to a decline of suction force, dust suction against surface to be cleaned and centrifugal separation in the centrifugal separator are not smooth. As a result, users are inconvenienced by having to periodically separate the filter member from the dust collecting apparatus to clean away the accumulated dust from the filter member when a decline in suction force is noticed.
To reduce such inconvenience of maintenance, Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2008-0104516 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 2008-036170 disclose a dust collecting apparatus including a filter member provided with a dust-removing unit. Since the dust-removing unit applies impact to the filter member to separate the accumulated dust in the filter member from the filter member, it is not necessary to separate the filter member from the dust collecting apparatus to clean up the filter member, and it is possible to conveniently separate the accumulated dust from the filter member.
However, since the dust collecting apparatus disclosed in the Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2008-0104516 includes a special dust collecting chamber in addition to a dust collecting chamber in which dust separated from the filter member is stored from a centrifugal separator, there is a problem of enlarging a volume of the dust collecting apparatus due to installation of the special dust collecting chamber.
In addition, the dust collecting apparatus disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication No. 2008-036170 includes a special bypass to collect the dust separated from the filter member. Accordingly, when operating the vacuum cleaner, the dust separated from the filter member is fed to a centrifugal separator by air introduced through the bypass. Since an opening/closing lid, a shutter for opening/closing, a limit switch, and the like are installed at the bypass, there is a problem that the structure of the dust collecting apparatus becomes complicated.
In addition, in the dust collecting apparatus, since fine dust is filtered by a filter member while passing through the filter member after dust from the outside air, only once performing dust separation through a centrifugal separator, a large amount of the dust is accumulated in the filter member. Accordingly, the users often have to operate the dust-removing unit, thereby shortening the filter member's lifespan.